Garage for sale - a snip at £90,000

But a one-car garage measuring just 10ft by 15ft is expected to sell for at least £90,000 - £8,000 more than the average British home.

It is close to Chelsea Green, south west London, one of the most expensive areas of the country, where wealthy residents are desperate for parking spaces.

Cara Chaston, 30, decided to sell the garage - which is in a courtyard patrolled by a porter - after moving from the house she shared with her two brothers to a maisonette in Fulham, where she parks on the street.

She said: 'I spoke to a few estate agents and they said you are very, very lucky because garages in this area are in incredible demand.

'At first I was told £70,000, then £80,000, then £90,000. Basically, if someone wants it badly enough you can practically name your price.

'I was absolutely amazed. I was only selling it because I didn't want to have to get the bus to pick up my car every day. I didn't plan to make a killing.'

Kensington and Chelsea Council has issued 44,000 resident parking permits but there are only 25,800 spaces available. In the millionaire's rows of Chelsea, the shortage has made garages like gold dust.

'Demand is massive because they are so rare,' said Richard Gutteridge, of Knight Frank, which gave Miss Chaston a valuation.

'The houses are old, so few were built with garages and the type of person who can afford to live in Chelsea often has a car too valuable to park on the street.'

The average price of a home in Britain is £82,188 according to a report by the Nationwide Building Society three months ago.

But if £90,000 will buy you only a garage in Chelsea, don't worry. It will stretch a lot further in many other parts of the country.

For £88,950 you could buy a three-bedroom semi with large kitchen, off-road parking and gardens in Manchester.

Or how about a five-bedroom Victorian townhouse or a modern detached four-bedroom property, in Newcastle?

In King's Norton, Birmingham, you could spend your cash on a four-bedroom, double-glazed semi, two minutes from the Worcestershire countryside.